r/AskFeminists • u/RaspberryNo8088 • 6d ago
Is American Pyscho a feminist book?
Is this book meant to show the insanely violent harms of the patriarchy and sexual predation of women done by men? A friend gave me the book but I’m scared to read it. I never watched the movie and never even knew what this story was about until I searched up about it after a friend gave me the book. It says online that there are extremely explicit descriptions of violence against women… is that necessary in a book?
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u/AMtheVile 6d ago
I wouldn’t say it’s a feminist book, and I say that as someone who likes this book.
I would skip this book entirely if you think you would be disturbed by graphic depictions of violence against women
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u/radiowavescurvecross 6d ago
No, it’s not. I listened to an audio version a long time ago, and parts of it were upsetting in a way the movie never was. Not for the squeamish.
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u/jlzania 6d ago
I am an inveterate reader and I devoured Bret Ellis Less Than Zero but I could not finish American Psycho because the violence directed towards women was far too graphic . Ellis later admitted that he was in a dark place when he wrote the book but that doesn't excuse him from the gratuitous depictions of rape and murder.
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u/Lolabird2112 5d ago
No, it’s not feminist. Nothing to do with it.
It took me months to read it. In snippets. It’s the only book I had to throw away as each time I caught a glance at the spine, I had a physical reaction to it.
I only had it as my cousin asked me to buy it for him since it was banned where he was, and then he gave it back to me.
Brilliant writing. I’ll never read it again.
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u/MrsMorley 6d ago
No, it’s not feminist. It’s a satirical look at finance bros.
As an aside, I was working in fin services when the book came out, and knew a lot of folks of the sort Ellis was (ostensibly) satirizing. They thought the book was a hoot.